European Royalty discussion

Please discuss The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoeon's Court from the beginning through chapter 21, here.

I happened to get this one early from the library, so I finished it just a couple of days before he group read began. I'm excited to hear what everyone else thought of it!
This was my first Napoleon novel and I really enjoyed it. I've heard wonderful things about The Josephine Bonaparte Collection: The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe, and the Last Great Dance on Earth - how does the description of Josephine in this book compare to her portrayal on Gullards collection?

I loved Marie Louise. What a great woman, so smart and strong and selfless!

I'm almost finished with the book (it's been a quick read). I like the use of the first person narrative for different people (which is kind of funny for me because I'm not usually a fan of typical first person narrative (when it's only one person's point of view for the entire book)). I think Alison Weir did that in Innocent Traitor as well and I also liked it there.

I've only read the first book in the Josephine B. trilogy, so there's no overlap with the timing of this book (and it's well before she became Empress). I'm really interested in reading the last two though after this book (and I think there is a Norah Lofts book about Hortense floating around my house somewhere). This was pretty much my first Napoleon book as well, and he seems really fascinating (including that sister of his - wow). The Bonapartes seem like quite a group!

I liked Marie Louise as well, and I found it so interesting that she openly had a lover at her father's court before she was married. I'm hoping if there's an author's note that it's mentioned because I'm curious to see if that was really the case (Adam's portrayed as such an important person in Marie Louise's life that I assume he's probably real, but I have no knowledge about any of these people so I really don't know).

I am finding this read unexciting! The writing is overly simply and I am finding that it lacks substance. I was hoping to learn much more about Napolean and Marie Louise but I have not thus far. I am also left to wonder how much of what I read is fiction versus non-fiction.